Finally delved into my New York photos that I never actually thought I was going to get to. They’ve been sitting on my hard drive since the end of February, quietly waiting and wondering when they were going to be used and abused. It’s a night of firsts, I’ve only now got a copy of photoshop for my macbook pro. No longer restricted to the wonders of lightroom, I can now dodge, burn, clone and do many more wonderful things… If only I knew how to. It does mean that thankfully, I’m now perfectly armed and ready for an upcoming photoshop training day in Dublin.
So coming back to the above. It’s the product of a little bit of fecking around in photoshop, trying in vain to emulate even a tiny percentage of what I’ve retained from the photofest. Not alot. I require the use of a brain of someone that knows photoshop. How many times in one post can I write photoshop? Photoshop, photoshop, photoshop! Maybe my next task will be to clean up my desk to create a space to work in with graphics tablet and external hard drive instead of balancing the lot precariously on my knee.
Hi Ryan,
At what resolution did you load this picture - it looks a little jagged at the edges compared to the other pcis on the page ?
(Currently viewing Guy’s Retouching DVD that I bought at the PhotoFest. Uber contrast ahoy!)
I thought the same John… I tried a bit of that sharpening technique he used on the day but it just looks over sharpened. I might get a few test prints to see what they come out like though.
Hi Ryan,
You can get quick and dirty tips for p/s at http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html
If you have a head for referring to books, I’d recommend two; Scott Kelby’s ‘The photoshop (cs2) book for digital photographers’ or Deke McClellands ‘Photoshop one on one series’ (plugging them because I have images in them…lol). Seriously, they are good ref books tho.
As for sharpening, a non destructive method I use is the unsharp mask, set at 85%, 11.0pix , 0 thresholds….might need to do it a few times….if you only need/want to sharpen one specific spot, run the USM, then in your history…click the box to the left of the last usm you did, then click back to the stage before you ran usm…select the history brush and you can paint in the sharpened spots you want.
I used unsharp mask on the above too… What Guy Gowan recommends is 500% and around 1pix anything up to 1.6pix.
I have the Scott Kelby book, just have to get around to spending a few quiet hours digesting it.
If you’re going to get serious about PS, there really is only one book (and not one that you want to keep flinging against the wall because it’s written by a twat - a la Kelby!), and it’s Martin Evening’s ‘Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers’. Not sure if there’s a CS3 version yet, but, I’m sure it won’t be far off if not here already. I’ve read a fair few PS books, this one is the bible.
A hell of a lot better than my Empire State photo of Macys, when I went up I was buried in cloud